They walked down the hallway. The only sound that was hearable were their own steps on the blank stone-ground of this old factory. They were sent to get a man, hanging around in these halls, with nothing more informations about him, than his status. He was a dealer. No big fish at all, but somehow he got in contact with important informations, that were worth his death, silently, clean and fast. Nonetheless it felt strange in here. It was like something was terribly wrong with this place, as if the darkness wouldn't be only the absence of light, but another strange creature that was lurking behind the next corner to catch one of them and eat him all up at once.Raven was not a newbie in this buisness like Vincent was. And even if his young scholar was skilled and clever, he was not used to such situations, were danger was almost touchable. A quick look over the shoulder back at Vincent just confirmed his guess. He was nervous. Even if it was not visible on the first look, but the gun in his hand was slightly shaking, he looked back to the entrance more often than usual for him and his breath was going faster the deeper he walked into the darkness right after Raven. The older one shook his head. That was the curse of old rotten buildings. They always feel creepy inside. Especially at night. It was only lucky for them that it was not raining outside and the full-moon was standing high. So they didn't even need a flashlight.Slowly they followed the hallway deeper into the factory. Each of them checked the rooms leading from the hallway. Raven took the right-ones, Vincent the ones on the left side, when they both stopped infront of the stairs leading upside to the next level of this building. Vincent took a deep slightly shaking breath while Raven confident and steadily took one step after another until he reached the next floor. He turned backwards to give Vincent a short wave to show him it's safe and he could follow his steps.But at the bottom of the stairs was standing no one. Now he didn't care about silent movement. Her started to run down the stairs, taking two steps at once and looked around on the lower level, his gun raised and ready to shoot.Slowly he knelt down and took a look at the ground. There were only his own footsteps and the ones of his student, standing infront of the stairs, waiting. Carefully he stood up and looked around again, trying to find a hint where Vincent could have gone. He had to choose between a small broom closet on the left side and another half opened metal-door probably leading to a working-hall on the right side. Slowly and carefully he took the way down the right side, his gun held in the right height to give a sudden attacker a headshot or at least a bullet in the chest.His heart was beating like hell and he bet it must be hearable within 10 meters, but nonetheless he took a deep breath before he moved through the door. He was right. This was a hall, built for the work with metal. Everywhere were chains hanging from the ceiling and old weilding equipment was lying around on the massive tables. Carefully he did go one step at a time, down the room, looking for his partner. No, this was not funny, nor was it a good joke, if it was one of those. He didn't expect Vincent to make this kind of jokes during a mission and endangering their success. It was simply not kind of his style. He suddenly turned around when he was listening to the rattle or rusty old chains. One step could be done by him in the guessed direction, when the sound repeated and could be located from a curtain of rusty chains. Raven unlocked his gun and focused the exit of the curtain, since the movement through the chains seemed to go to the left corner.His heartbeat raised and suddenly stopped for one beat, when he saw Vincent coming out walking towards to him, he hands raised. He could feel the anger growing in his chest. Oh lord, how much he'd love it to hit him in the face for such an idiotic joke!But then he saw the fear in his students eyes. The panic in his face made his arms shaking and barely able to be up. The younger one stopped when he was only 5 more meters away from his partner and slowly took the arms down again. Raven looked at him and lowered his gun too. He started to walk over to him, when Vincent suddenly raised his voice: "Stop it! Don't get near to me!"He was not able to understand the meaning in his students words, until he saw a almost white snake crawling from a chain from the ceiling and wraping around the neck of his partner. He wanted to run to him, take this creep away from his neck, but he was not fast enough. The only thing he could see at last was a choking Vincent that was lift from the ground, by this strange thing around his neck. Raven lifted his gun and tried to focus the "snake", as a voice from above started to laugh."Oh my stupid little bastard. Do you really try to safe him with you little useless weapon?"He stopped to think for a moment, in this very moment he just reacted by instinct, located the voice and shoot a bullet at it. In the bright light of the firing weapon he was able to see the thing at the ceiling. It was a beast, large and monstrous, and its tail was still wrapped around Vincents neck, choking him and holding him in the air. He could hear his student struggling with the tail and he knew that Vincent wasn't weak at all."Oohoo... Nice shot. At least for a mortal." The earth trembled and he could hear the breaking of massive furniture as well as the clanging of chains when the beast jumped down from the ceiling and walked towards to him. Now he was able to see how big it really was. Its shoulder had the height of two man, and it was barely able to move in this halls. The tail was strong and Raven gave up the hope that Vincent would be able to free himself, especially because with every second it'd get harder. He could hear and smell the breath of the beast that came nearer each second. And so he rised the gun again, pointing exactly at the forehead of this monster. "Do you really think this is a good idea?", it asked him with a deep and rough voice. But he wasn't able to answer, but pulling the trigger again and was able to see how the bullet broke through the forehead of the demon and pushed through its brain just to break out at the back of its head. For a short moment there was this stupid feeling of success, but only until the thing started a hideous laughter at him and hit him with its giantic claw. It pressed him down to the ground, so he was barely able to breath.And then it changed, somehow it shrinked, transformed into a rather humanoid form and let Vincent drop down to the ground, coughing at first and then falling unconscious. The thing did kneel down over Raven and laid its still claw-like hands around his neck, ready to choke him too if necessary. Its black blood was dripping from the wound on its head to Ravens chest. "I don't think this was a good idea at all.", it said and grabbed his neck. He was badly choked, not able to breath nor scream. He could feel the strength of the thing that lifted his helpless body in the air and watched him fighting for some air to breath with its white eyes. The monster tilt its head and watched him pondering a moment, while its hands were still choking him with the same strength. "Ah... now I got it." The thing grinned at him and showed him its sharp and dangerous teeth. Then he was thrown away across the room to the wall. His back was aching badly and he wasn't able to move. But he was able to see clearly, that the thing was kneeling in front of Vincent and ripped his protective vest apart from his chest. It laid a single claw on the bare chest of Ravens partner and gave him a single look, before it digged this single claw through the skin into the helpless body.

He woke up.The bedsheets were dripping wet from his sweat and he shivered. He was lying in his bed. Alone and could hear the calm and soft breathes of Vincent in the other room. The stupid little boy fell asleep while watching TV again. Raven smiled in relief and left the room to go into the dining room, wake up Vincent and drag him back into the bed again. Oh hell... what a fucked up dream was this?When he closed the door behind him, the curtain of his big windows was floating and a silent chuckle came from it.